We came across this tongue-in-cheek article at Monster.com about ways to make a Recruiter hate you. While hate is a strong word, several elements of the story did resonate a little with our principal recruiter, Louie Smith. While Louie maintains he’d not be terribly offended by a marriage proposal (but happy at home, thanks) he DOES prefer to avoid candidates who are “liars, stalkers or particularly apathetic in their applications.”
“The important balance in a recruiter-candidate relationship is mutual respect and professionalism, with some warmth and fun thrown in,” Smith said.
“It’s hard to believe the anecdotes in the Monster article, but in fact, those of us who’ve been in the recruiting business for decades have certainly witnessed some ill-advised candidate behavior,” he said.
So candidates, beware. If you see yourself in the “Six Ways to Make a Recruiter Hate You,” reconsider your approach!
Six Ways to Make a Recruiter Hate You
– By Larry Buhl, Monster Contributing Writer
If you want a job, you wouldn’t intentionally try to make recruiters hate you. But you’d be surprised at how often an eager job seeker will make an enemy out of the very people they need to impress. Some blunders are merely irritating, while others can make recruiters do a slow burn when they hear your name.
OK, hate is too strong a word in most cases. But if you want to totally blow your chances with recruiters — and, by extension, with the companies they work for — here are six perfect ways to do so.
1. Get Creepily Personal
Recruiting consultant Abby Kohut recalls a phone interview (that had gone pretty well up to that point) in which the job seeker ended the call by asking her to marry him. “When I told him that was an inappropriate thing to say to a hiring manager for the company, he said, ‘Oh, I thought you were a just a headhunter.’ As if that would have made it all right.”
2. Use Cutesy Language, Texting Slang and Dumb Resume Tricks
The gimmicky resume is a pet peeve of Barbara Safani, president of Career Solvers, a career-management firm based in New York City. “Please do not send a resume inside a shoe, saying you’re looking for ‘a foot in the door,’” she says. Beyond annoying the recruiter (FYI — that glitter you put in your envelope will get you noticed, but will take time to clean up), these tactics make recruiters think you don’t take them — or your job search — seriously.
3. Be Rude and Aggressive
Job hunters who use heavy-handed tactics with recruiters, like sending an angry email in all caps after being passed over for a job, won’t impress the recruiter either, says John O’Connor, president and CEO of Career Pro, a career-coaching company in Raleigh, North Carolina.
“Some candidates see the recruiter as an antagonist who must be pushed and prodded and bullied to work on their behalf,” O’Connor tells Monster.com. “In other cases, they’re frustrated by the job search process and feel the need to take it out on the recruiter.”
To read more about “lying, stalking and apathy,” please visit Monster for the full article.